Last Saturday, the Canadian government announced it would put proposed online surveillance legislation temporarily "on pause" following sustainedpublic outrage generated by the bill. Since its introduction two weeks ago, Canadians have spoken out en masse againstBill C-30, the Canadian government’s latest attempt to update police online surveillance powers. As currently drafted, the bill represents a dramatic and dangerous attempt to leverage online service providers as agents of state surveillance.

This January 28marks International PrivacyDay. Different countriesaroundtheworld are celebrating this day with their own events. This year, we are honoring the day by calling attention to recent international privacy threats and interviewing data protection authorities, government officials, and activists to gain insight into various aspects of privacy rights and related legislation in their own respective countries.

This January 28marks International PrivacyDay. Different countriesaroundtheworld are celebrating this day with their own events. This year, we are honoring the day by calling attention to recent international privacy threats and interviewing data protection authorities, government officials, and activists to gain insight into various aspects of privacy rights and related legislation in their own respective countries.

The United States Government is taking its stance pressuring the European Union to weaken its new strengthened data protection bill. The European Union has a history of strong data protection standards, emboldened by the European Charter’s explicit provisions upholding data protection as a fundamental right. European Digital Rights (EDRi) revealed today a widespread U.S. lobbying effort against the November 29th leaked version of the legislative proposal for a Data Protection Regulation (DPR). DPR will repeal the existing EU Data Protection Directive, which details regulations regarding personal data processing within the European Union, and is due for official release on January, 25th 2012.

The European Parliament will vote soon on an agreement to formalize US procedures for retaining and providing EU based Passenger Name Record (PNR) data of EU and US citizens traveling into, out of, and through the United States. The agreement will determine how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be able to use the broad swath of sensitive PNR information that is based in the European Union. PNR data contains a passenger’s travel itinerary and consists of 19 different data metrics ranging from your name and address to your seat number and any general comments made by the ticketing agent. Travel agents, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and railways collect the data whenever you make a reservation to travel or buy a ticket. The data is stored in central databases called Computer Reservation Systems (CRSs), and is pushed from the CRSs to DHS for passenger screening.